FED: Come home for Christmas, Chris Vanstone

AAP General News (Australia)
12-21-1998
FED: Come home for Christmas, Chris Vanstone

CAIRNS, Qld, Dec 21 AAP - Justice Minister Amanda Vanstone today urged fugitive Australian
businessman Christopher Skase to come home and visit his family for Christmas.

The former Qintex boss was admitted to a Spanish hospital late last week with a gastric
complaint.

Senator Vanstone said while she did not wish ill on the 50-year-old Skase, she had little
sympathy for his ongoing health concerns.

"We have seen over time this man lapse in and out of good health as he needed," she said.

"One minute he is gravely ill, the next he is toddling around a golf course.

"He is now in hospital and there is some suggestion as to whether the treatment for the
gastro complaint will flush out the drugs that he is using for emphysema.

"I, like everyone else, see his health come up and down almost at his convenience. I've
seen the wheelchair come out, the oxygen mask come out and I have seen them both be thrown
away.

"I am not really moved by stories of recent illness.

"Good wishes (to Mr Skase) if he comes home. 'Come home (Mr Skase) and see your mum and
dad; everyone else does'."

Senator Vanstone made the call during a ceremony welcoming 19 new Customs officers who will
work on airport security in Cairns.

She praised the work of federal and state police and customs agents involved in a recent
operation which discovered an alleged guns-for-drugs trade between the Torres Strait and Papua
New Guinea operating out of Stephen Island in the Strait.

As a result, a 27-year-old Stephen Island man will appear in the Cairns Magistrates Court
on March 10 charged with conspiracy to import cannabis into Australia.

Senator Vanstone said she would be raising the matter of cross border surveillance and drug
law enforcement during a two-day Australia/Papua New Guinea Ministerial Forum which started in
Cairns today.

AAP dt/nc/ms/de

KEYWORD: SKASE VANSTONE (CARRIED EARLIER)

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